On the Avenue by Antonio Pagliarulo

beautiful.
    Now she was sitting tight in her corner of the limo,arms crossed over her chest. “I mean …
really,
” she snapped. “The two of you should be ashamed of yourselves. What do you think Mom will say when she finds out the diamond has been stolen?”
    “Personally, I think she'll be more concerned that one of my dresses was found on a murder victim,” Lex shot back. “
That's
what's really important right now.”
    “Like hell it is!”
    “Both of you,
stop it.
” Madison exhaled loudly, and her tone went tight and terse as she assumed her nononsense businesswoman persona. “Now, let's talk seriously. We're going to have to mobilize our publicists and our attorneys as soon as we get home,” she said. “This is the kind of terrible publicity that leads to financial damage. Hamilton Holdings' stock will plummet at the first mention of the word
murder.
And with the fiscal reports due in two months, we just can't have that.”
    Clarence smiled. He got a kick out of listening to them shift gears. He eyed Park and Lex.
    They both knew to follow suit. It was time to forget about their carefree lives as rich famous girls and assume their roles as well-trained miniprofessionals. They were, after all, the future vice presidents of Hamilton Holdings, Inc. Trevor Hamilton had made certain to expose his daughters to every piece of the empire he had built from scratch, and there wasn't a single aspect of his dealings the girls didn't understand.
    Their attendance at monthly board meetings was mandatory. Twice a year, they accompanied him on trips to Hong Kong, Sydney, and Dubai to meet with foreign affiliates and potential real estate investors. They even had their own small offices at Rockefeller Center, where the headquarters for Hamilton Holdings, Inc., was located. It was all part of the master plan. Eventually, Madison, Park, and Lex would take the reins from their father and multiply the company's profits by a few billion bucks. That was still several years away, but even now, at sixteen, they knew the full scope of their duties.
    Being a celebrity was all about fame. Being a debutante was all about money. But being a celebutante was about making money—and doing it famously.
    Park settled herself deeper into the limo's plush leather seats and said, “Right now, I think it's a bad idea to get our lawyers involved. We haven't been charged with anything. We haven't even been accused. I think the company will be okay so long as we ride the scandal out cleanly without legal ramifications.”
    “Nonetheless,” Lex chimed in, “we'll need hourly NASDAQ updates to monitor what's publicly traded. And I hate to say it, but I have to: the West family will be up our asses on this, waiting for the perfect moment to steal our newest investors overseas.”
    Clarence, listening intently as he cruised up Broadway, smiled even wider. “So what's the newestbusiness venture?” he asked, not wanting to be left out of the conversation. “What the hell can those fatass Wests steal?”
    Madison hesitated only a moment before replying. “Right now, we're working to secure investors for new cell phone and Internet technology that's coming out of Korea. Amazing stuff that we haven't even seen here yet. It took Daddy almost a year to convince those guys to agree to take a meeting with Hamilton Holdings. It's huge money. A little bit of bad publicity is dangerous, and it gives our competitors ammo to steal the deal right out from under us. That's what the Wests want—to be as powerful as us. They've always wanted it but they haven't managed to get it. That's why they hate us so much.” The last few sentences came out sharply, defiantly, and she turned her head to stare out the window.
    “Not
all
the Wests hate us,” Park said, hinting at Madison's former relationship with Theo.
    Madison ignored the comment.
    “What we're trying to say,” Lex told Clarence, “is that there's a lot at stake. We have to proceed very carefully